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according to The Korean Herald According to reports, Samsung has warned of poor revenue in the first quarter, of which operating profit was only 600 billion won (approximately 13.9 billion Taiwan dollars / 3.5 billion Hong Kong dollars), a drop of 96% from the same period last year. Samsung blamed the sharp decline in demand for memory chips for the free fall in operating profit, and said it would “reduce memory production capacity to a meaningful level” and continue the “production line optimization” work it was already doing. However, Samsung is still optimistic about the medium and long-term demand for memory chips, and will continue to invest in infrastructure such as clean rooms and expand R&D capital investment.
Although it can’t catch up with TSMC’s taillights in high-end chip foundry, Samsung still dominates in DRAM and NAND flash memory, with 40.7% and 31.4% of the global market share respectively. When Samsung indicates that the demand for memory chips has declined sharply, it means that the global demand for technology products has dropped significantly, and it can also be regarded as a leading indicator of a weakening global economic environment. Of course, to some extent, this is also a rebound from the excessive sales of electronic products during the previous COVID period. After all, products such as laptops and tablets can be used for many years after being replaced. However, it is also true that the prices of DRAM and NAND memory are plummeting, falling by 20% and 15% respectively in the last quarter.
For Samsung, the main highlight last quarter was only the new Galaxy S23 phone, which helped boost profits. The full Q1 financial report is expected to be released by the end of April.
